


The Serene Rest of the Sea

by tedde01



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27591151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tedde01/pseuds/tedde01
Summary: They fled all the way to the other side of the sea as if escaping into the world, because Ryne believed that the world was made of seas.
Relationships: Ryne | Minfilia & Thancred Waters
Kudos: 4





	The Serene Rest of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I made up some of Thancred's past in 3.0  
> I don't speak English as native language so this is a translated work from Chinese. Please feel free to comment on any suggestions!

At her age of six, Ryne began to sleep in the basement of Eulmore, with a globe hanging over her bed. It was painted white, only the central land exposed a small patch of color, but when it came to night time, this globe would visit her in the dream. The land was still in the center, yet the white was all painted in blue instead – the kind of blue she saw in those pictures of the sea, convincing her to believe that the world was really made of seas. Minfilia awakened to the power of Echo at seventeenth, and Ryne was similar to her. Thancred took her to flee from Eulmore at her age of seventeen, yet with his silence and rejection to explain, Ryne thought him as a closed door. She had never thought to pry into the door, but as the Witch of Light, the awakened power led her to stumble into the door, with all her mysteries and curiosities, as well as the unwilling sense of guilt. 

She was often ashamed of this ability: the ability to neglect others’ “doors” and intrude into their past. To her mind, it was more transgressive than opening the door with a stolen key. “I don’t want to get to know him in this way,” she whispered to herself dejectedly, “I’d rather not have this ability.”

She had also carelessly peeked into others’ memories in the days when she was with her companions, but more often the memories of Thancred. His memories filled up the blank gaps in her experience as a tide. At first, she could only see fragments and a montage of images, and had never experienced headache as Warrior of Light did. But after a couple of times, she always found herself staring at him in a daze and losing herself in those memories. On that night in Amh Araeng, when returning to herself in the howling wind and the cracking sound of the shed roof, she caught sight of a pair of amber eyes – they were looking at her intently under the candlelight. 

“I saw them by accident!” she lowered her head in panic, realizing that he was going to be offended. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

Thancread, however, was not to blame. 

“I’m the one who should apologize,” he said, “I have really awful experiences. Did they scare you? What did you see in my past?”

“I saw you…in a forest. You were buying potion from the Mords.” She answered, without telling him that she also witnessed Thancred being racked with anguish when these fits came upon him. She saw him woke up exhaustedly in a cave, and his hands were covered with frictions and bruises. She knew that he was lucky – he had escaped from the leylines, with his limbs and eyesight intact, yet the taboo act of transporting himself with ancient magic has paid for the price. He was returned with a twisted set of ether, preventing him from using his rapiers and, moreover, leaving him the acute agony. “This would probably be what people are always talking about,” in Thancred’s memory, Ryne heard him murmured to himself, “– the thing for me to bring into my grave.” He looked sad, miserable, but he never shed a tear.

She didn’t tell him either that she saw an illusion on him when they first met – the illusion she had never seen before: Thancred, who was a little younger than now, was standing barefoot in the shallow sea, next to Minfilia. The waves were running through his bare legs, and they were seeking for shells in the sand. They looked so happy and carefree, and the sea was so gentle. That was the reason why she decided to grab his hand on that day – the day when Thancred reached out to her, and asked if she would trust him.

She chose to trust him without hesitation.

The potion from the Mord’s fair had been drunk up. In the middle of the night, Thancred fell into the nightmare again. Ryne fetched him water, but he could hardly recognize her due to the accompanied high fever. He asked her to get the painkiller from his pocket, and then gradually lapsed into unconsciousness. 

The painkillers didn't have much use. He shivered so painfully that the bed board creaked. Ryne could do nothing but anxiously stroked his back and put her little hand in his cold palm for comfort. It was not a broad palm. He faithfully played the role of a father, but the term "father" always accompanied by warm, generous hands and mountainous shoulders. Those were not the cases with Thancred, since he was unable to use magic anymore. Before holding up his gunblade, he was the nimble shadow of the night, and the light-hearted dandy who was better at assassinating – but now he walked fearlessly under the sun in white, carrying the burden on his back without complaining. Who was he? In the nightmare, Ryne heard him calling for Minfilia, and then she remembered the first time they met – the illusion with nothing to do with her, but also something to do with her. "I don't want to know him in this way." She thought to herself quietly, yet at this moment, even she could not tell whether the power of Echo was a gift or a sin, or both.

There were plenty of seas in Norvrandt, but they were so vicious and evil – they isolated Eulmore from other islands, and if someone were trying to leave Eulmore, these seas became dangerous whirlpools and man-eating monsters. Nevertheless, on the day when Thancred rescued her out, they fled all the way to the other side of the sea as if they were escaping into the world, because Ryne believed that the world was made of seas. At this very moment, in the howling wind and the cracking sound of the shed roof in Amh Araeng, she suddenly began to recall the sea she saw in Thancred’s memory, the sea she had never really seen before, also the sea Thancred and Minfilia had encountered together, and then thought to herself: This is probably it, the thing for me to bring into my grave.


End file.
